Half the Effort
The topic of the AA meeting was the continuous work and effort required for our AA Program.
A lady shared, “in the 1940s and 50s, Wrigley’s Spearmint gum became a leading brand, beating the others by spending a lot of money on advertising. Someone once questioned Mr. Wrigley about the money that he spent on advertising. He is credited with saying, ‘You are right, I spend a fortune on advertising, and you are also right to question whether or not it does any good; I know for a fact that half of what I spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, I don’t know which half. It would be great if someone could tell me which half is working, I would save a lot of money.’
She paused to let us digest that observation and continued, “I have been around the Rooms for a while now; I go to four or five meetings a week. I am pretty sure half the time I spend attending meetings is wasted. The problem is, like Mr. Wrigley, I don’t know which half.
“And I have the same problem with the rest of my Program. I meditate every day; I am sure that half the time I spend meditating is not doing any good; the problem is I don’t know which half. I pray throughout the day, and I suspect half the time and energy I spend praying is wasted. But which half? Inventories, I do them all the time. I sometimes think half of the personal inventories are a waste of time. But again, which half?
“My sobriety, serenity and spiritual awakenings are buried in all my Program work.
“You would think I would want the same thing Mr. Wrigley wanted, to know which half of my Program is working. But I am not interested. If you know how to eliminate the non-essential work, keep it to yourself; I enjoy it all.”
I walked away from that meeting enriched and improved. Our AA sister hit the nail on the head. Program work is good and good for us; it is profitable and pleasurable. Finding the secret of the Program and reducing the time spent practicing our principles would not be a good thing; like my AA sister, I thought, if someone knows which part of the Program works, they can keep it to themselves; I am enjoying all the parts.
